Game 6 Links
Micah Hart, Hawks BasketBlog: No, there is only one reason the Hawks won on Friday night - heart. No, make that Heart. It deserves to be capitalized for this team, because what they did tonight was will themselves to a Game 7 showdown in Boston on Sunday. In Game 3, the Hawks were the better team. In Game 4, it took a performance of the ages from Joe Johnson to get a win. The Celtics can look at those two games and make excuses.
But not tonight. The Celtics had this game. There was no reason for them to lose this one, not after leading almost the entirety of the first three quarters and forcing the Hawks to play the kind of offensive basketball that played into their hands. But once again, the Hawks stepped up when it counted in the fourth quarter, and because of that a series most people assumed would be over in four is now the only one in the first round to go the distance.
John Hollinger, ESPN.com: Of the five arenas I've been to in this postseason, this was easily the loudest -- a shocking turn of events for a place that could have doubled as a mausoleum for much of the regular season.
Where all these people came from, nobody knows -- it was an arena record 20,425 of them, to be precise -- but the newfound fanatics carried the team. They quite possibly intimidated the refs too: The Hawks enjoyed a 47-25 free throw advantage and took 41 in the final three quarters.
Kevin Garnett: "I've played in the league 13 years now and I've been coming to Atlanta for all 13, and this is the first time I've seen the atmosphere like this."
Steve Weinman, CelticsBlog: This team hasn't lost simply because it has slacked off and allowed the Hawks to take three games out of pure fortune. This series has clearly no longer been about the Celtics giving, and plenty of it has become about the Hawks taking.
Bob Ryan, Boston Globe: The only Atlanta leads in the three games in Boston were 2-0, 7-5, 7-6, and 8-7. It's a different game in Boston. But it wasn't supposed to be this hard. There wasn't supposed to be a Game 7 in this series because if the Celtics really were the legitimate heirs to a throne, they would have ended this thing in Philips Arena last night. They would not have lost Game 6, 103-100, to the Atlanta Hawks.
3 comments:
Adrian Wojnaworski of Yahoo! Sports had another great Woodson quote, further showing his delusional mental state.
“All those doubters, they’ve never played a lick of basketball in their lives,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson sniffed.
Just by way of stating the obvious, a couple of those TNT basketball analysts who doubted the Hawks are Charles Barkley and Chris Webber. I could run up a full tally, but surely I don't need to go farther?
Dear me, forgot to mention Kenny Smith, the biggest doubter of all. A modest 10-year NBA career. But he never played a lick of basketball in his life.
Bret, in both games that Marvin Williams missed this year, Mario West got the start in his place. I'd to see if you have any input on how likely this is prior to the start of the game tomorrow, and am also curious what impact you think he might have in the game.
I can't help but like Mario. He's a non-factor on the offensive end, especially against a good defensive team like Boston, and leaving him for a long stretch would really be harmful. But he does bring a lot of energy to the floor, which the Hawks have certainly been lacking in Boston. I'd like to see him come in and try to bother Ray Allen for a few minutes at the beginning, then commit a good hard foul on Pierce before getting yanked.
Say what you will, in his last start he did have a positive impact on the boards, grabbing 4 offensive rebounds in 16 minutes.
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